The end of all things and the beginning of others
by katiekayx
Summary: This is a Lincoln/Olivia romance, set in the amberverse. Episode rewrite of 4.14 "The End Of All Things". This doesn't follow canon. If you're a Polivia fan, steer clear of this one. Read and review!


**A/N:** _This is an episode rewrite of "The End of All Things" that does NOT follow canon. Please keep that in mind while reading. Like I said in the description - if you are a hardcore Polivia shipper, you don't want to read this. I noticed there aren't a lot of Linvia shippers here, but this was a request that I got from someone on Tumblr, so I thought it'd give it a shot. This is also my first fic set in the amberverse, hurrah! Please review if you read, I'd really appreciate it!_

* * *

><p>"What are you doing with Olivia?" Lincoln practically growled, placing both hands on the table in front of Nina Sharp. Broyles sat to his left, stony-faced, and the room was silent. Nina looked appalled that they would even be asking her such questions, but Lincoln wasn't falling for it.<p>

He had never questioned Olivia's relationship with Nina, not since he had been partnered with her. As far as he knew, Olivia was a pretty good judge of character, and he trusted her. Whatever reasons she had for trusting Nina, he did too, except for right now. Except for the one time when Nina couldn't give him the answers he wanted. Olivia had cortexiphan in her system, and Nina was the only one with access to the remaining supply. To Lincoln, there was no question as to who had dosed Olivia.

Vaguely hearing Nina say she wasn't going to say anything else unless she had a lawyer present, he took a deep breath and tried to compose himself before leaving the room with Broyles. His boss didn't say a word, just took off down the hallway towards his office, and Lincoln was hot on his heels, unable to believe that they were just going to leave it like that. "Sir, I really think we need to do more digging at Massive Dynamic…" Lincoln trailed off, suddenly remembering his time on the other side.

"Agent, is there a problem?" Broyles' clipped voice interrupted his voice.

"Nina, she said it was shapeshifter, that was the only explanation for the eyewitnesses and the log for accessing the cortexiphan."

"Your point being?"

"What if there's another Nina Sharp?" Lincoln's mind was racing, he was barely able to keep up with his own thoughts, and struggled to vocalize them to Broyles.

"We don't have any record of that…"

"We wouldn't, if she was working for David Robert Jones and didn't want us to know she existed. Think about it, we knew about all the other doppelgangers, but Nina's. No one even thought to ask. Think about the Nina we know – if the other Nina is anything like her, if she didn't want us to know she was alive, we wouldn't know."

"So you're saying…"

"I'm saying that if Nina accessed the cortexiphan and was getting into Olivia's apartment somehow, Olivia wouldn't question it. She would have no reason to; she would have no idea that Nina has an alternate."

"I need you to go to the Bridge and talk to Agent Lee," Broyles barked out orders, "Find out what he can tell you, and have him contact you as soon as he knows anything. Meanwhile, we're going to keep looking for her."

Lincoln nodded, and was almost running down the hall in the FBI building, racing to the front where his SUV was parked. He threw the car into drive and took off towards the Statue of Liberty.

* * *

><p>"What's going on?" Agent Lee raced into the Bridge room, where Lincoln was pacing, holding his phone to his ear. Peter was on the other end, trying to tell Lincoln what was happening, "Colonel Broyles said Olivia's been kidnapped?"<p>

Lincoln nodded, ending the phone call with Peter, who also didn't have any of the answers that he was looking for. "We think there's an alternate version of our Nina Sharp, who raised Olivia. She's the head of Massive Dynamic, and recently Olivia has been dosed with a drug that only Nina would have access to, but she swears she hasn't touched in years."

Agent Lee furrowed his brow, "That name doesn't ring any bells…"

"Look, we have no leads. We have no idea where Olivia is being held, and the chance that Nina has an alternate that might be behind this is the only way that we're going to find her."

"What about a shapeshifter?"

Lincoln shook his head, "Nina or not Nina would be dead if it was a shapeshifter."

"Unless it was a different kind, didn't you say that there was new tech being used?"

Lincoln ran a hand through his hair, his mind still racing with all the new possibilities behind Olivia's disappearance. His mind was going a million miles an hour and his alternate seemed to see this.

"I understand you're worried okay, if it were Liv…" He trailed off, swallowing thickly, and Lincoln remembered the conversation he had with the other Olivia about her relationship with his alternate, and how similar it seemed to be to the situation he had found himself in recently.

"Just let me know if you find anything out, will you? I need to get back to the lab, see if Walter figured anything out." Lincoln said, and didn't wait for a response before walking out of the bridge room, and getting in the car.

* * *

><p>When they finally figured out where Olivia might be, the team rushed to the scene as fast as they could; breaking a million traffic laws on the way. Once they got inside, it was madness – people running every which way, shots being fired, but the only thought in Lincoln's mind was that he needed to find his partner.<p>

He broke away from the fighting and slipped down a back hallway, listening for any signs that would lead him to Olivia, when he heard a disconcerting noise coming from a room off to his left. Pulling out his gun, he cautiously peeked in, when he saw Olivia, facing David Robert Jones. She looked _mad_. Lincoln knew better than to piss her off, and he knew that look on her face. It was the kind of determination that scared him sometimes – the kind of determination that bordered on reckless.

"What are you doing, Olivia?" Jones asked, and Olivia almost smiled.

"I'm doing what you asked; I'm turning on the lights." She replied calmly, and the lights started to flicker, and pop. Lincoln flinched, as he struggled internally with showing himself, or waiting to see what was going to happen.

Olivia closed her eyes briefly, and when she opened them again, all the lights started to fizzle, and she was talking to Nina, and that's when Lincoln knew they were right – that this _wasn't_ the Nina that he knew, and suddenly people were being electrocuted, and Lincoln was shielding his head from exploding light bulbs. Olivia sank to the ground, exhausted, and Lincoln rushed into the room, talking to her while trying to stay calm. He was still trying to wrap his mind around what he had just seen happen, but needed to concentrate.

"Olivia? Liv, it's me, it's Lincoln." He said, crouching down to meet her eyes. They were unfocused and hazy, and for a second, a ripple of fear coursed through him. "Olivia." He said firmly, "Can you hear me?"

"Lincoln?"

"I'm here, I've got you. We need to get you out of here," He said, helping her to her feet.

"Peter, Peter's in the other room."

"We'll get him, okay?"

Lincoln went with Olivia to the other side of the glass wall, and helped Peter out of the restraints. "What happened to you? You said you were going home." Lincoln hissed.

"They were waiting for me. They brought me here." Peter said through gritted teeth, his head pounding. "Are you okay?" He asked Olivia, and she nodded, making eye contact with Lincoln.

"I'm fine, but we need to get out of here." No sooner than the words were out of her mouth, then they heard more shots being fired in the hallway. They ducked, Lincoln's arm still around Olivia's back, steadying her. Finally they were in the clear, and Lincoln straightened, bringing Olivia with him as Peter walked carefully behind them.

They were nearly to the door, where Lincoln felt a sense of relief wash over him as he guided Olivia and Peter, who was without a gun or bulletproof vest, when suddenly Olivia collapsed, and Lincoln dropped to his knees to support her weight. She was convulsing, and he didn't know what to do, and he was beginning to panic, when he vaguely heard Peter trying to tell him what to do. He snapped out of it, and immediately restrained Olivia's arms so she wouldn't flail around so much, and tried to calm her down. "Olivia, Olivia! Can you hear me? Listen, listen, you're going to be okay, alright? You're going to be fine…" He was stuttering, but she made eye contact with him, and he knew she could hear him; he just had to figure out what to do. Olivia gradually stopped convulsing, and she was breathing heavily, and Lincoln didn't know whether he was relieved or if he was afraid of something else horrible happening as he lifted her into his arms to carry her to the car.

He knew that if Olivia were well and able, she'd kick his ass for literally carrying her out of the scene like a damsel in distress, but she didn't struggle, and Lincoln would bet that it was only because she didn't have the strength to, and that he'd be hearing about this later. "Put me down," she said weakly, and he almost laughed at how predictable she was. "I can walk."

"No, you're going to go see a medic."

"Lincoln."

"Liv, just let me do this, okay? I need…" he trailed off, taking a breath as he carried her closer to where medics and police were arriving, "I need to make sure you're okay." He didn't meet her eyes.

* * *

><p>Olivia woke up in the hospital. She rubbed her eyes before she realized where she was, and she panicked instinctively before remembering that she wasn't being held against her will anymore. She tried to slow her breathing, and faintly registered breathing from the other side of the room. Turning her head slightly, she saw Lincoln asleep in a chair, still wearing his vest and badge. She smiled slightly, tilting her head as she tried to imagine how on earth he was comfortable with his neck at such a strange angle.<p>

As if reading her thoughts, he woke up with a start, and she stifled a chuckle as he looked around and even touched his hand to his gun momentarily, out of habit. "Oh, hi." He looked sheepish, but he straightened, fumbling for his glasses on the small table next to him. "How are you feeling?"

"Better after sleeping," Olivia rubbed her eyes again, "I'm still sore though."

"I'm surprised you don't feel worse, to be honest." Lincoln replied bluntly, "People who have seizures are normally out of it for days, Liv."

She cocked her head to one side, "You keep calling me that." It wasn't a question asking why, but more of a statement, an observation. Lincoln took some time to observe his shoelaces before meeting her eyes once again.

"I guess it just slips out. That's what the other Lincoln calls the other Olivia."

"Nobody really calls me that but my sister." Olivia says suddenly, not meaning for something so personal to come out of her mouth. On the other hand, she supposes, it's only natural to tell something like this to Lincoln. He is her partner, after all, but she senses that their connection goes deeper than that. She trusts him implicitly, and she never expected to, as awful as that sounds. She hasn't fully trusted anyone in years. To think that Lincoln would means as much to her as he does in a short amount of time should be setting off alarms in her head, but it's not. She feels relatively calm, given the circumstances.

Lincoln looked uncomfortable, "If you don't like it, I'll stop. Like I said, it just… comes out."

Olivia did smile then, a small one. "No, I never said I didn't like it."

Lincoln smiled back at her. "I'm glad you're okay."

"Well who knows what would have happened if you hadn't shown up."

"I have a feeling you'd be just fine." Lincoln said, looking at her a little longer than was strictly necessary, "I'm glad we found you, though."

"I knew you would, you know. You need to have more faith in yourself. This job will get easier, I promise."

Lincoln started taking off his bulletproof vest, as if he just realized he still had it on, "I don't know if I'll ever be completely settled in with this job. I'm trying, though."

"You will," Olivia said, scratching her neck as she did when she felt awkward, "It just takes time. Trust me."

"I do." Lincoln said quickly, seeming to regret it immediately, "I mean, I trust you. I have no reason not to."

"Lincoln…" Olivia didn't know how to say what she wanted to say, "You know that night when I was supposed to meet you at the diner?"

"Olivia, it's fine, don't."

"I wanted to meet you. I would have. I think I was dosed that night too."

"Really, Liv, it's not necessary to apologize. It was a dumb idea in the first place." Lincoln didn't know how else to be but yielding. He was afraid to hear what she was going to say if he let her apologize for something that, he realized now, she had no control over. The idea of the two of them meeting for late night dinner at the diner was silly, a spur of the moment idea that had him feeling happy for a fleeting second, but when she didn't show up, he realized how strange it was that he had expected her to show up in the first place.

"Can you let me talk for a second?" She sounded exasperated. "I wanted to see you that night." Lincoln shut his eyes as if he didn't want to look at her while she kept talking, "I was getting ready to leave and then the next thing I knew, I woke up on my living room floor. I thought I had just passed out from a migraine, but I know it wasn't that now, Lincoln."

Lincoln shuddered at the thought that he hadn't even gone to her place to see if she was okay, he just figured she changed her mind about meeting him, "I should have checked on you." He voiced this same thought.

Olivia shook her head, "That's not the point. The point is that I don't want you to think that I ditched you, or that I…" she moved her hands around, searching for the right words to say, "… I don't know, Linc." He tensed at the use of a nickname that he hadn't heard in years, "I guess I'm just… I'm really happy we're partners."

Lincoln knew that's not what she was originally going to say, but for him, for now, it was enough. He knew she was blindsided by what had just happened with Nina, and he knew that she was still struggling with conflicting feelings about Peter and whatever was going on in her head. "I am, too." He said finally, and the two of them shared a small smile, that one, that Lincoln noticed, Olivia only really used around him. He was sure he did the same thing, since, as he told Peter, he had never met anyone like Olivia Dunham before.


End file.
